Middlebury College

Chess Blues

My co-worker Jess noted that I’d written my previous two posts on music genres that I “wasn’t the biggest fan of,” and suggested politely that perhaps I write about something I was a fan of. Well. It does seem to be a radical idea, but I’ll bite…

I am a big fan of blues, electric blues in particular. And the greatest of all electric blues record labels has got to be, no, not Alligator, but Chess. As it turns out, there is a new movie, Cadillac Blues, based on the history of Chess and some of it’s most famous artists — Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, and so on. I can’t wait to see it, actually (the NY Times praised Beyoncé’s performance as Etta James very highly), but until then I’ll probably get reacquainted with some of this incredible music. You might want to, too….